Ottawa

Ottawa's 2022 municipal election by the numbers

Where were the closest races? How does this mayoral race compare to the last few? Read on for some takeaways from the preliminary numbers.

The city's closest races had a difference of fewer than 250 votes

Ottawa's voter turnout was just below 44 per cent in the 2022 mayoral election. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

The main headlines from Ottawa's 2022 municipal election were Mark Sutcliffe defeating Catherine McKenney to become the city's new mayor-elect, plus a long list of new faces on city council, and a stubbornly low voter turnout.

Here are some more takeaways from Elections Ottawa's preliminary results.

Final results should be released later this week.

The mayoral race

161,679: The number of people that voted for Sutcliffe.

42,438: His margin of victory over McKenney. Percentage-wise, that's 51.4 per cent to 37.9 per cent.

4: The number of mayoral candidates who earned more than one per cent of the vote: Sutcliffe, McKenney, Bob Chiarelli and Nour Kadri. The other 10 earned a combined 3.3 per cent support.

43.8%: Voter turnout for the race, with ballots cast by 316,260 of the city's 722,227 eligible voters.

2006: The last year the mayoral race was this close, when Larry O'Brien bested Alex Munter by 32,510 votes (47.1 per cent versus 36.3 per cent).

169,845: Jim Watson's average vote totals across the 2010, 2014 and 2018 elections.

113,059: Jim Watson's average margin of victory across those three campaigns.

Council races

238: The number of votes that separated returning Osgoode Coun. George Darouze over former Osgoode councillor Doug Thompson, the closest race in terms of votes.

2.2%: In terms of percentages, Darouze's win of 40.8 per cent to 38.6 per cent,was also the closest margin.

243: The slim margin of victory, in votes, for Clarke Kelly over Sasha Duguay in West Carleton-March.

10,739: The difference in ballots cast for Theresa Kavanagh in Bay ward and the closest runner-up. She garnered 82.8 per cent of about 15,500 votes cast.

72%: The margin of victory for returning Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King. He received more than 80 per cent of the votes in a four-person field, while second place got just over eight per cent.

WATCH | Hear from some of Monday night's winners

Ottawa municipal election winners talk about priorities

2 years ago
Duration 1:32
During victory speeches and interviews Monday night, Ottawa’s new mayor-elect and several councillors-elect detailed their priorities for the next four years, with several mentioning a need for a more collaborative, cohesive city hall.

11: The number of city councillors for the next term that weren't in office at the end of the current term (new councillors are sworn in next month).

10: The number of rookie city councillors — new Riverside South-Findlay Creek representative Steve Desroches represented Gloucester-South Nepean from 2006 to 2014 before stepping down.

53%: Voter turnout in this election was highest in Kitchissippi. Capital ward (51.2 per cent) was the only other ward to have more than half of its voters cast a ballot.

37.2%: The incumbent-less Rideau-Vanier race brought out the lowest voter turnout.

5: The number of wards with voter turnout under 40 per cent.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Foote

Digital reporter-producer

Andrew Foote has been covering Ottawa-area news for the CBC since February 2013 after graduating from Carleton University. He can be reached at andrew.foote@cbc.ca.